Friday, September 28, 2007

This is going out to all the moms and dads who have endured more episodes of Dora than they could possibly count... (there are some mild off-color references that your older children might pick up on, so you may not want to click on this when they're around)

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

We just got back from our little jaunt to the State Park. We rented one of the family cabins there for a couple days, and had a wonderful time. Biked a bit, watched birds, threw rocks into the water, strolled along the water, and cooked over the fire (well, my hubby did - I just provided all the fixins). Ahhh... One of the funniest moments was when we first arrived - our son very excitedly ran into the cabin, then came back out to where hubby and I were unloading. He excitedly exclaimed, "Our new house is really cool! But where's the TV?" Hmmm. Talk about proof that we needed some time away :) The only low point was that I managed to torque my knee on a rock, so I didn't get to ride my bike. I'm still hobbling a bit, but it's feeling much better! Hope you enjoy these few pictures - I love the one of the kids alongside the lake, and am trying to think up a cool way to display it.

'Oh, that's no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready.'

'Give me two reasons why I should go to school.''Well, for one, you're 52 years old. And for another, you're the Principal!'_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

School ExcusesThe following are excuse notes from parents (including original spellings) collected by the University of Texas: They were collected from Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Mississippi.

My son is under a doctor's care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him.Please excuse Lisa for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.Dear School: Please ekscuse John being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,and also 33.Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating.Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side.Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels. (Squirts)Please excuse Tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea and his boots leak.Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because I don't know what size she wear.Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.Sally won't be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well.Please excuse Mary for being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps.Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover.Please excuse Burma, she has been sick and under the doctor.Maryann was absent December 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache, and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever and sore throat, her brother a low grade fever and ached allover. I wasn't the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night.

And the best one...Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was not his fault.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Hubby and I had another date night last evening - this is our third such outing in three months, and it's been so wonderful to be able to just spend time talking without the kids around (and not have to wait until they're asleep, either, when I'm barely keeping my eyes open!) We had Chinese (well, Amerinese) and played mini golf. We had lots of fun, and I even had a couple holes at par! (I'm generally one of those that has a decent first putt, but then takes 4-5 strokes to actually get it into the hole). How lovely that after 11 years of marriage we can still be silly together.

The other MOPS steering team members are leaving for convention today. And while I still wish I were going, there's also a part of me that's quite relieved, as it's one less thing to do. Instead, we'll be taking a mini family vacation and are renting a cabin at a nearby state park. It has over twenty miles of bike trails, so we're planning to explore those a bit. Plus there is a lake, playground, and even a shooting range for hubby. And of course we'll be eating over the campfire. But mama is happy that we'll have a stove inside as back-up. And of course the all-important bathroom. We'd like to do some real camping - involving a tent - next year, but I do think the kids will love the cabin. Now I just need to finalize our meal plan and do the grocery shopping!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Our little boy is growing up. He just came downstairs and announced that their bedroom was clean (he was to be straightening it up while his sister took care of the toys strewn across the living room floor). Well, I went to check, and this is what I found under his sister's bed:

Lovely. Perhaps I should retitle the blog to "Beneath the Toddler Bed."

Yeah, people are born "basically good." I taught him to do that. Seriously, how can people truly believe that if they've EVER spent time with children?!?!?!?

So we've reached another milestone. Perhaps not as eventful as a first full night's sleep or those first few halting steps, but there is something about the first "Shove Everything Under the Bed" clean-up.

Monday, September 17, 2007

"You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed." ~A.J. Gordon"Falling asleep in prayer is no problem. You can rest in God's presence. Besides, next to the heart of God is a good place, a safe place, for sleeping." ~Richard J. Foster"God's greatest concern is not the length of our prayers, nor the correctness of our language, but the attitude of our hearts." ~Leighton Ford"As children hear their parents praying for wisdom and direction, they learn that parents can't fix everything. I believe God designed it this way. After all, if parents were perfect, children would never sense their need for God." ~Paul Meier

Saturday, September 15, 2007

My hubby took a half day off work yesterday, and we had a little family outing. We headed to Cabela's, which is a large sporting goods store. They have a lot of animals on display, so we figured the kids would enjoy it. We started out a bit later than planned, but still had a great day. Lunch at Cracker Barrel (where we also bought each of the kids a small toy, as we forgot to bring along any sort of activities for the two hour ride), then on to the ginormous hunting - camping - fishing wonderland. Their largest display is of white-tail deer, and we were wandering about, pointing out the smaller animals and just generally having fun. That was fine and dandy until we got to the mechanized man. Push a button, and an "old-timer" will tell you about hunting. Well, our daughter wanted no part of that! She totally freaked out, and didn't want to be within 20 feet of the thing (in fact, someone turned it on as we were leaving that area, and she started crying again when she heard the voice). OK, so we'll avoid that area...

We continue strolling, and she really likes the African animals and the "big bear" (Kodiak). We head upstairs to the camping area, and they have a large electronic shooting gallery. Daddy decides to spend a buck to try it out with his son. Well, our little boy didn't quite get the gist of aiming, and just shot at the ceiling (he liked the pinging noise). Daddy took over, and was quite excited to win a free round. About that time, a large deer starts chatting and our daughter loses it again. At that point, we headed to the toy department, where I figured she could calm down with some nice stuffed animals. Daddy and brother caught up then, and we did just a bit more shopping. Our big purchase was a very nice cast iron double roaster for campfire pies. Buttered bread plus pie filling equals yummy evenings with our little fire pit in the back yard! We're also going away in a week and a half (we'll be staying at a cabin in a nearby state park), and figured grilled pizza pies would be a fun dinner one evening.

Anyway, we headed for home, but ended up stopping and having a late dinner with hubby's sister. The kids then fell asleep with in minutes of hitting the road, and slept very soundly. They're both a bit whiny this morning, so I'm thinking I may declare family nap time this afternoon. And our son is already wanting to know when we're going back to "Bellas." All I can say is I hope his sister has warmed up to the idea of animatronic figures by then!!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Thursday, September 13, 2007

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe."

Philippians 2:14-15

I had mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was reading Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture. Well, one of the tidbits that has stuck with me is the challenge to parent without complaining. I ride my kids for whining - but I'm equally guilty of this annoying habit. Am I shining? Not really. I'm just another one of the grumpy SAHMs who lists off all the awful things are kids are doing. Can I ever empathize with struggling moms - and probably even one-up them on stories. "You wouldn't believe what my son did last week..." But what if I just keep my mouth shut and offer encouragement instead. How much brighter would my own light shine, pointing them to our Heavenly Father. Something I'll continue to work on...

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Monday, September 10, 2007

Well, I made it through the big crafter sale on Saturday. It took two trips to get all my stuff over there (and one of those was in a friend's mini van), but I managed to get the leftovers into our wagon. I made several hundred dollars (which obviously I'm quite excited about!!) but now I still need to decide how to liquidate the rest. And on a funny note, I met a lovely lady who just moved here from Jersey. We were chatting and she mentioned that she'd had a hard time finding stampers/scrappers in this area. I asked her where she lived - and nearly dropped my Diet Coke when she named our section in L-town. Yep, I drove 25 minutes to meet someone who lives 1/2 block away.

So this week I'm just focusing on reclaiming our house. Things fell seriously behind due to all my furious sorting last week, and I've done 7 loads of laundry and run the dishwasher twice since yesterday afternoon. I also went grocery shopping and ran errands.

In addition, I'm starting some new medication tomorrow. Last month, I went in for my LOOOONG overdue general check-up, and the doctor ordered bloodwork. Turns out that I have some thyroid issues, which helps explain why I'm dragging so much and not having much luck taking weight off. Obviously nothing is going to change overnight, but it's kind of nice to know that there's actually a physiological reason for the way I've been feeling lately.

So this leads me to my "mommy nudge" for the week: Ladies, make sure that you're taking care of yourself!! I'll bet your kids have been getting all their regularly scheduled check-ups. Are you?

Friday, September 7, 2007

I'm sort of scrambling today, so I'm just using a picture from last night as this week's humor break. Admit it parents: you've secretly wished - at least once - that you could just box them up and ship them off somewhere for a little break...

(Please note the residual pizza sauce on their faces. Yes, we dined on that most perfect food last evening!)

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

More crazy days here. Last week we found out that one of my hubby's sisters would be moving out of the area, so we had one last shindig yesterday. We had a ball, and now my fridge is full of leftovers. (Translation: I don't have to cook for the next few nights!!)

I have sooo much I'm trying to get done right now, and frankly it doesn't feel like there are enough hours in the day. I'm taking part in a stamping/scrapping sale this coming weekend, and I'm still sorting through stuff deciding what to sell. Our yard is looking quite jungle-ish as it's been so long since we did major weeding and pruning. I need to go through the kids' clothes and figure out what they need for the fall/winter (the big consignment sale is just a few weeks away!) MOPS is starting back up, and I'm in charge of Creative Activities again. Our church is doing a Sunday night program starting in two weeks: "Essentials of Discipline." (The video series put out by Focus on the Family. We're definitely going to that!!) My hubby still has a decent chunk of vacation time left, so we're also trying to plan out some little day trips to do with the kids. Hubby needs to fix our computer (the power supply went last week, but I'm really thankful for his laptop!), finish rewiring the church plus install some new equipment. Oh, and then he's helping a friend with some construction, heading up the next church work day and also needs to rebuild the transmission on a truck.

Anyone have some spare hours to send our way? :)

On a total side note, check out this really fun "Lost Sock Holder." Cute idea, eh? I think I may make some of these up for Christmas gifts!